Category: Tech
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Changing diet
Changing Wales’ diet There was an interesting thread on LinkedIn last week, discussing things like Wales’ relience on imported fruit and vegetables. Predominantly Brexit-related issues, but it did spark a few comments about what Wales could and should be producing. And it led me to consider whether public procurement in Wales should only incorporate vegetarian…
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A radical digital syllabus for primary education in Wales
A radical digital syllabus for primary education in Wales I recently undertook some training on futures thinking. I was struck by the following statement about how to consider ‘futures’: Start with where you want to be, not where you’re coming from. The basis of this post is the sort of skills and confidence that I…
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At last – a social media conference for Wales 🥳🙄
I was intrigued and delighted to see that a company is holding a social media conference for Wales. I’m a big fan of skilling-up in Wales, and a big fan of digital media. So, naturally, I offered my services for extolling the benefits of open source social media. I got a thumbs-up on my comment…
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Learning to learn
I’m late to the VUCA party – the acronym was coined in 1987 to reflect Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity1. I’ve since come across it a few times in relation to the nature of society, with particular regard to the rate of change in the digital world and the natural environment. It’s hard to disagree;…
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Welsh Government’s approach to ‘digital’
Welsh Government’s approach to digital is being described through a series of blog posts. I’m really encouraged by this approach to a new #digitalstrategy for Wales – and for public services in particular. I like the way that a blog is being used to describe each of the ‘missions’ which underpin the strategy, and I think…
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Open source social media will save our democracy
In an opinion piece in yesterday’s Guardian newspaper, Carole Cadwalladr describes how Facebook is the virus that has enabled the catastrophes of both Brexit, and the ascension of Mr. Trump to the White House. Facebook allows lies to spread virtually unchecked. It permits those people with the most money and least scruples to disseminate falsehoods…
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‘Hwyl fawr’ Twitter
I’ve long been intrigued by the interplay between the dark money that fuelled Brexit (amongst other nominally democratic events), and the use of social media to persuade and to influence. I’m surely not the only person who feels intense disquiet about the use of money to spread lies and misinformation – and the seeming impunity…
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Something’s happening in the Fediverse…
6 April 2020 I’ve been using the Mastodon micro-blogging platform for a while now – increasingly choosing not to use or post on Twitter and committing myself to a democracy-friendly path. I’ve become used to ‘meeting’ interesting people way outside my normal e-contact groups, and I have definitely reduced contact with the people I would…
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Can Wales lead the world in ‘safe’ social media?
Social media has energised the way in which we interact, communicate, promote and understand. As with any tool, it has the ability to be used for good, or for ill. I don’t intend here to detail the way that social media is used to abuse, to pillory, to demean and to spread hate. Nor is…
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Goodbye Instagram; hello Pixelfed
I’ve been a big fan of the open source movement for many years. I can probably trace my interest back to at least 2003, which was the year I first installed the Thunderbird email software, followed a year later by experimenting with Ubuntu as the operating system for my laptop. I think I would describe…